


IdF:  Kaleidoscope - Reaching an Understanding

by Skywinder



Series: A Twist of Fate [5]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-31
Updated: 2012-07-31
Packaged: 2017-11-11 03:47:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/474174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skywinder/pseuds/Skywinder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Starscream's life with the Autobots begins, but some are having difficulty in accepting the presence of the Ark's new tenant.  Set 3 weeks after Awakening.</p>
            </blockquote>





	IdF:  Kaleidoscope - Reaching an Understanding

**Author's Note:**

> **Time unit:**  
>  _decacycle_ \- 3 Earth weeks  
>  _klik_ \- 1 Earth minute  
>  _solar cycle_ \- 1 planetary rotation

**_Three weeks after Hoover Dam_ **

Starscream walked down the halls of the _Ark_.

It had been a decacycle since his awakening from stasis, and he was still finding the transition difficult. While his initial assessment of some of them being friendly had proven accurate, he had also caught several other mechs whispering in the halls, stopping only when they either noticed his approach or saw him looking. Those particular mechs usually wore hostile looks. Others seemed uncertain of how to approach him, and just stared, averting their optics when they realized they had caught his attention. A few seemed friendly enough, though. Starscream chuckled as he remembered how the one called Wheeljack approached him.

 _The solar cycle after his arrival at the_ Ark _, Starscream had been in the medbay, waiting for Ratchet. The medic had been insistent that he come for a scan to determine if his systems were functioning properly and to get his medical history. At the time, Starscream was tempted to tell him to slag off as he'd had a stressful wake-up call, but something in the medic's optics had convinced him to hold his glossa for the time being. He'd also noticed a few of the larger mechs backing off at that look. Starscream smirked a bit as a few possibilities occurred to him. It might be fun to try and bait this one eventually, but he'd toe the line for now, just to throw him off a bit, and observe others to find out how best to goad him._

_"You're the flier everyone's talking about!"_

_The voice broke Starscream out of his plotting. He looked up to see a green and white mech with a facemask and headfins approaching him, his optics bright, and his frame type just as strange as the others he'd noticed since his awakening. Before the tetrajet could even frame a reply, the strange mech had grabbed his hand and started shaking it._

_"Starscream, right? Name's Wheeljack, Chief Engineer of the Autobots! Pleased to meet you finally!" The headfins were flashing a bright yellow, and the voice had a jovial tone to it._

_Briefly stunned by this 'Wheeljack's' actions, Starscream didn't even think of pulling his hand away._

_Then something Wheeljack said sunk in. "'Finally'?" He asked cautiously._

_Wheeljack suddenly seemed a bit sheepish, and his headfins flashed a bit pinker. He dropped Starscream's hand, and rubbed the back of his head. "Uh, yeah, that's right, you wouldn't know, would you?" His optics seemed to smile suddenly. "You were a legend in the Engineering and Biomechanics Department at the Academy! Some of those inventions you came up with were amazing! Always wanted to work with you, and now that you're here, maybe you'd be willing to...?" His voice trailed off, a hopeful tone in it._

_Starscream just stared at him, optics blinking, not quite sure what to say. However, he couldn't quite ignore the twinges of pride he felt at this mech's slight case of hero worship. His mind flashed back to the thoughts he'd had when Prime had introduced himself. He would prefer to work with no one but Skyfire, but Skyfire wasn't here, and it was unlikely he'd be able to begin his attempts to track him down any time soon._

_And he would need help for those projects he had in mind..._

_"I don't see a problem with it," he finally responded._

_Wheeljack's headfins once more flashed yellow. He thanked Starscream profusely, and after about three kliks of that, he turned and fled from the room, saying he couldn't wait to tell Perceptor the news._

_All Starscream could do was shake his head._ That has to be the craziest mech I've ever met.

Starscream grinned. Wheeljack was crazy and accident-prone, but he did seem to enjoy his work, and didn't seem to have the latent biases towards Seekers and war-frames that others had. Minibots could be the worst when it came to that. Starscream wasn't sure why. He could only guess that there was either some type of jealousy in terms of size and ability or there was a strong history of past mistreatment by war-frames towards the minis. Starscream strongly suspected the latter, given some of the comments he'd heard in the past regarding the mini-frame set.

Besides the friendly and hostile types, there were the cautious ones. A few of the front-liners had been as suspicious of him as most of the minis had, but as the story spread about how he'd helped one of their own at risk of his own life, the distrust had become a bit less prominent, and most started to see him as a hero.

Starscream couldn't deny that it fed his ego a bit to be seen that way, but it also made him uncomfortable as well. He'd done what any mech with an iota of concern for his fellow mech would have done. It had nothing to do with faction, just simple decency.

The Seeker just kept walking the halls as he pondered the situation he had fallen into. All things considered, he didn't like it one bit. Yes, he needed the Autobots' protection, as it wouldn't be safe for him to go out alone for quite a while, but over the past decacycle, it had started to become clearer to him he was going to have to make a decision soon regarding the level of his involvement.

What should he do?

As Starscream continued to ponder this question, he turned the corner of the next corridor.

And in his distraction, he failed to notice the ambush waiting for him.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In a nearby corridor, a certain minibot named Brawn was having his own troubled thoughts.

There were four things that Brawn hated: Cowards, non-combatants, Decepticons, and Seekers. Of course, the last three items were often considered as a major part of the first group, anyway. Brawn had a physical strength that was rare for a minibot, and was a fighter by nature, so he had a very difficult time understanding why mechs such as scientists didn't fight. Decepticons and Seekers were self-explanatory as far as he was concerned. They attacked like cowards, stabbing you in the back when you least expected it.

After an incident where he witnessed Perceptor sharpshooting something out of the sky, he began to change his tune a bit regarding non-combatants. Previously, he had been bullying Perceptor, and even Wheeljack came in for a bit due to his failed experiments and weapons. After the incident with Perceptor, though, he had started to think a little, and decided that just because one was unable to go into battle, that did not necessarily mean that they lacked the ability to fight, they just used their skills in a different form to assist. Being a proud mech, however, Brawn never did verbally apologize to either of the two scientists, but he started to take on the unofficial duty of bodyguard to the pair.

Decepticons and Seekers were another story. Decepticons attacked from behind, ganged up on you and used dirty tactics to bring you down. Seekers dove in, strafed you, and then dodged shots as they swirled back up into the sky. The tactics they used were unfair in Brawn's optics, and Seekers were the worst of the lot.

Then Brawn's world was shaken once more, by a Seeker no less.

Starscream fit into two of the categories Brawn usually denigrated. He was a scientist, and he was a Seeker. That alone was a contradiction for Brawn. Besides using dirty tactics, Seekers were low-life military builds with no sense in their heads (although even he couldn't deny two of the Command Trine seemed to have more processor than the rest), and had no business having any other kind of specialization. Yet Starscream did, and not only that, he was a better engineer than Wheeljack, which even that mech acknowledged. In fact, he spoke of Starscream as being one of the best in the field.

But that wasn't what shook Brawn's opinions. No, what did that was the tetrajet's actions when they first met: in spite of his disorientation and confusion in the midst of the battle the Autobots and Decepticons were fighting over who got to him first, he had wandered out there and helped Brawn.

The Jeep had been hit by a lucky shot from Astrotrain. When he'd seen the Seeker's face leaning over him, he hadn't wanted the Seeker to touch him. Unfortunately, he hadn't been in much of a position to argue. Some of his power relays had shorted, and he couldn't move. All he could do was glower at the mech. Then the bizarre first impression was burned in when Megatron had stood over them both, pointing his fusion cannon at them and demanding to know what Starscream was doing, helping the enemy. The Seeker's response had stunned him.

_"I see only a Cybertronian in need of help. I don't see an enemy."_

A decacycle later, those words still rang through Brawn's processor when he glimpsed the Seeker. Those words had been hard to reconcile with his views of Seekers. Seekers were Decepticons, period. And Brawn knew full well he was not the only Autobot to believe this.

However, those Autobots hadn't glimpsed what Brawn had. Most of them had not seen the defiant look on Starscream's face as he responded to Megatron, had not heard the same tone in the words he spoke.

In Brawn's opinion, that took bearings, something he wouldn't have normally associated with a Seeker or any other war-frame.

Since that day, Brawn hadn't had the opportunity to speak to the Seeker, not even to thank him. That wasn't to say he hadn't been thinking about it, though.

Brawn had gotten the impression from the way the Seeker had spoken and acted that there was some degree of pride there. He wasn't sure how much, but he knew better than anyone the concept of pride, and that injuring it would be a big mistake. Since he spent enough time around Perceptor and Wheeljack, and he knew Starscream did by virtue of his profession, he decided to talk to Perceptor about how best to approach the Seeker.

Perceptor had confirmed Starscream's reputation for being proud, and explained why: he had excelled in his chosen fields of Biomechanics and Exploration. His flying ability was also unmatched as far as Perceptor knew. He did explain that Starscream did have a touchy temper, and did not like asking for help, not even if the problem was almost out of his control. In fact, Perceptor could not recall Starscream ever asking for help. That wasn't to say that such an event had not happened, Perceptor stressed, for he and Starscream worked in diverse fields, and it was possible his absent partner could say otherwise. Perceptor either would not or could not say more. Brawn wasn't entirely sure which.

While this information was somewhat helpful, it didn't quite solve the minibot's problem of how to thank the 'jet. Brawn knew he had a reputation of being tough and proud, just as Starscream was known to be proud, and by now it was likely the tri-color knew that the mech he'd saved disliked Seekers. It wouldn't help he hung out with the minibots who were most suspicious of Starscream. Probably thought of him as an ungrateful little glitch, now that Brawn thought about it.

As he walked down Corridor E-17, the Jeep was still trying to figure out how to thank the 'jet and save face when he heard voices from the adjacent hallway.

"Hey, hold him for me, would ya?"

A look around the corner revealed three minibots and Starscream. Normally, Brawn would have been content to watch a good fight, and a Seeker against three minis…well, they wouldn't have stood much of a chance. However, the Seeker was on the ground, on his front, and two of Brawn's fellow minis, Gears and Huffer, were each holding down a wing with their feet while Cliffjumper was sitting on Starscream's back with his left arm around the other mech's neck.

"Seekers don't belong here," hissed Cliffjumper into Starscream's audial. "Go to the Decepticons where you belong."

Brawn wouldn't say he was the smartest mech around, but he was smart enough to know that the three had made a big mistake. Not only had they managed to take Starscream by surprise somehow and jump him from behind, they had also pinned him down in one of a flier's most vulnerable locations. From his vantage point, the orange and brown mech could see what the others could not. The Seeker's optics were full of rage, and somehow Brawn knew that they would be deactivated as soon as Starscream was able to get up. They had roused his temper, that was clear.

And in that moment, Brawn knew what he needed to do. After sending a quiet comm. ping to Prowl with his coordinates and a request to come to his location, he made his presence known.

"Well, well, what do we have here?"

Cliffjumper looked up at him with a grin.

"Hey, Brawl, you're just in time. We're just trying to convince this Seeker to relocate. Mind helping?"

"Of course," Brawn replied calmly. Cliffjumper looked down at Starscream with a nasty grin, not seeing Brawn deliver a nasty uppercut to Gears' face. The sound of Gears hitting the wall distracted his attention, and before Cliffjumper could fully register what had happened, Huffer had slid down the wall, joining Gears on the floor. By this time, Starscream was now able to push himself up off the floor, and he very quickly did so, dislodging a surprised Cliffjumper, who ended up in the minibot pile.

"Hey, I thought you said you'd help!" yelped Gears.

"I did," said Brawn with a smirk. "I just didn't say _who_ I was going to help."

"You traitor," hissed Cliffjumper. All three got up and moved towards Brawn.

But they didn't even get the chance to touch him as a stern voice joined the gathering.

"Is something going on here?"

All of the mechs in the hall looked towards the sound, and saw Prowl standing there, hands on hips, a cold look on his face.

"Prowl! Uh, the three of us were just…," Cliffjumper sputtered.

"Let me guess, picking another fight," Prowl finished. "Gears, Huffer, Cliffjumper, my office, now. Brawn, Starscream, I will contact you both later for your version of events."

Both mechs nodded. The three troublemakers were escorted away, grumbling threats of revenge against Brawn for later. Brawn didn't really care. He would deal with them later like he always did. Besides, they were giving Prowl more ammunition for punishment anyway.

Starscream just looked down at the smaller mech, more than a little disgruntled. He had been minding his own business when he'd been jumped, by three minibots no less, and then a fourth comes to his rescue. The mech he had saved a decacycle before, in fact.

A bit uncomfortable with the situation, Starscream gave vent to his discomfort and annoyance the only way he could.

"I didn't _ask_ for your help you know. I could have dealt with them myself."

And to his surprise, the minibot chuckled.

Then he shrugged, an amused half-smile on his face. "Yeah, I think you could have. Dealt with Cliff pretty well after the others were off your wings, I'll admit."

For a long moment, neither of them spoke, Brawn just looking at Starscream with that annoying half-smile and Starscream looking at Brawn with a somewhat startled expression.

Then Starscream smirked as the realization of what the minibot had done sank in. He too chuckled.

"I suppose we are even now," he finally said.

"I suppose we are," Brawn answered. "See you in Prowl's office later to watch them get in more trouble?" The last said in a tone of smug satisfaction.

"Of course," the Seeker responded in the same tone, walking past the other mech and down the hall out of Brawn's sight. As he continued on, the smirk changed into a grin. Even if he hadn't come to any clear decision about his future, it seemed he had picked up both an ally and a worthy sparring partner of sorts.

He would have to tell Perceptor and Wheeljack about this later.

Brawn's half-smile didn't fade as he watched Starscream walk around the corner. He still didn't like Seekers very much, probably never would, but something told him he had reached an understanding with this one. That alone made it worth what he would have to put up with later.

Brawn turned around and continued on his way.

As far as he was concerned, life had just become a lot more interesting.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted in August 2011 at FFnet.
> 
> This was a step out of my comfort zone. I'd already written several times about Starscream and Skyfire with limited views of the other Autobots. When I started writing Pariah, it didn't take me long to realize I needed to expand myself a bit more in writing about both factions. Awakenings was my actual first attempt. By the time this was released, I was starting to feel a bit more comfortable with the idea of doing so, with two chapters of Pariah being released prior to this. I considered this my second practice fic in that regard.
> 
> Research was done on Brawn. Any mistakes in how I framed him would be my own.


End file.
